Drinkers with a Running Problem

Home Brewers... (Read 1584 times)

I managed to win a third place ribbon at the Indiana State Fair Brewers Cup last weekend with a Light Lager a friend and I brewed together. The funny thing is that it was a last minute addition to the brew day back on new years day. I just wish I had some left. Fortunately I have a batch of Munich Helles lagering right now.

Congrats. One of these days I would like to try lagering but I really don't have anything to control temperatures.

And damn, I thought that I brewed a lot. I do have some stuff going on. July 4 weekend I brewed a holiday ale. This will be my biggest beer yet. In a couple of weeks I will rack it to a secondary fermenter and let it sit there until sometime in October and bottle it then. That small batch that I made needs to be bottled. I'll do that early next week. And finally, my potatoes are ready so next weekend I will brew a potato cream ale. I plan on grating a couple of pounds of potatoes like hash browns and adding them to the mash. I don't expect much in the way of flavor from the potatoes ..... it's more of a novelty thing.

Last night I bottled the cream of potato ale. The ABV calculated out to ~4.8%. The sample tasted good, similar to the mass produced stuff that you buy but better, fresher. We'll see how it is when it is carbed. This should be ready to drink in a couple of weeks.

I may do another cream ale down the road. The recipe is pretty simple. Maybe next time instead of adding vienna I'll just toast some of the 2-row. I think that I will try minute rice instead of the potatoes and corn, too.

Last night I bottled the cream of potato ale. The ABV calculated out to ~4.8%. The sample tasted good, similar to the mass produced stuff that you buy but better, fresher. We'll see how it is when it is carbed. This should be ready to drink in a couple of weeks.

I sampled a bottle of this over the weekend and am real pleased with the results. I'll be making potato beer again.

Last night I bottled a small batch of pale ale. This was just 2-row malt and simcoe hops. I did toast a pound of 2-row in the oven, This was also my first attempt at dry hopping. After tasting the sample I can safely say that I like dry hopping.

I'm going to do a porter. I brewed a smoked porter last year and it turned out well, so I will take that recipe and replace the smoked malt with 2-row.

Now, the coffee. Weyerbacher made a one off beer with coffee last year that was real tasty. See here. I am going to use the same blend of coffee. The place is only about 10 miles or so down the road.

I did some research and there are quite a few ways to add the coffee. The consensus of opinion is that the coffee should be cold brewed. Some add it at bottling time, but I want to allow more time for the coffee to blend with the beer. What I decided on doing is cold brew the coffee and add it at flameout. That way it won't be boiled, and it will have the maximum amount of time to blend with the beer.

Now, the coffee. Weyerbacher made a one off beer with coffee last year that was real tasty. See here. I am going to use the same blend of coffee. The place is only about 10 miles or so down the road.

I did some research and there are quite a few ways to add the coffee. The consensus of opinion is that the coffee should be cold brewed. Some add it at bottling time, but I want to allow more time for the coffee to blend with the beer. What I decided on doing is cold brew the coffee and add it at flameout. That way it won't be boiled, and it will have the maximum amount of time to blend with the beer.

I brewed this yesterday. Friday night I added a half a pound of coffee to a quart of water. I stirred it a few times. The whole kitchen smelled like coffee. I let the coffee steep for about 12 hours or so, then strained out the grounds. This yielded a pint of coffee concentrate. This was added at flame out. I took a gravity reading and you could definitely taste the coffee. This is going to be good.

This coffee is perfect for beer. It's pretty mild ... there was some extra so we brewed a couple of pots of it. I also added about a third a cup to the mash. It wasn't enough to make coffee so I figured why not steep it in the mash.

I bottled the coffee porter over the weekend. I overshot the volume by a lot. I ran out of my allotment bottles and there were still 6 pints left for me and my buddies. I must have miscalculated the sparge volume is all that I can think. The beer is a little lighter bodied than I would like, but the taste is fantastic. This blend of coffee really goes well in a porter. With a month of bottle conditioning this should be real tasty. It was damn good flat.

Nobody else brewing? Well, I am. Tonight I bottled my Holiday Ale. I brewed it in early July and the spices have mellowed nicely. 6 weeks or so of bottle conditioning and I'll be set. Here is a shot of the beer being racked to the bottling bucket...